


Laurea Means Victory

by Tarlan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsheplets, Episode Tag, Episode: s05e10 First Contact, Episode: s05e11 The Lost Tribe, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 02:51:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2294201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atlantis has offered to help with repairs to the Traveler's Ancient ship following the Attero Device disaster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laurea Means Victory

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **McSheplets** prompt 183: victory  
>  Tag to Season 5 episodes First Contact/Lost Tribe

"It means Star Victory," Rodney stated airily, looking up from the datapad that held an Ancient to English translator.

Not that he truly needed it in this instance as the Ancient - now Traveler - ship was once called _Astrae Laureolus_. It was close enough to the Latin word _laureola_ for victory and _astra_ for star to make for a good guess. Atlantis had an entry for the ship. It was once the equivalent of a luxury cruise liner, sailing between the stars rather than upon the waves, though the Ancients must have outfitted it with weapons as the war with the Wraith spread across Pegasus. Looking through the ship's log, which hadn't been updated in almost ten thousand years, its last official journey had been to bring refugees to Atlantis in time for the evacuation to Earth.

Like the _Tria_ , it hadn't made it in time and had turned back to escape the hungry Wraith. With no place safe to go and without engines fitted for intergalactic travel, its passengers had eventually become Travelers, staying in the deeper reaches of space to avoid the Wraith.

"Possibly _Victory over the Stars_ ," Daniel remarked.

"Or _Triumph of the Stars_ ," Rodney added with a smarmy shrug as that seemed the kind of pretentious name a civilian company would give to a pleasure cruise ship.

Daniel paused in thought for a moment before nodding in agreement but John winced, though Rodney thought it was still a better name than _Hippaforalkus_. When John opened his mouth to say something about the ship, Rodney held up a finger.

"Not yours to name."

John gave a sickly smile. The Travelers called the ship _Laurea_ , which just meant _Victory_ , and Rodney supposed it was their way of announcing their resilience over the Wraith, having survived for all these thousands of years as a space faring race.

"Well _Laurea_ ," John stressed the name, "is in bad need of repair, Rodney."

Rodney rolled his eyes.

"Not my fault," he stated but he knew his eyes betrayed him.

As gratitude for their assistance against the rogue Asgard, and for helping them save the _Daedalus_ , Woolsey had agreed to help the Travelers repair the Ancient cruise ship, which was damaged when the Stargate exploded killing three thousand of their people and completely destroying one other ship. Rodney felt guilty enough to personally oversee the repairs because if he and Daniel had not activated the beacon in Janus's laboratory that drew the rogue Asgard to Atlantis, then those people might still be alive. He had left Radek to oversee the repairs to the Atlantis gate room.

He formulated a basic plan for repairs after running a full diagnostic. Engineers were already repairing the hull breaches and soon the ship would be airtight once more. Dressed in the basic orange environment suit, though with helmet removed but close at hand in an emergency, he began work on the engines first as John suggested. The reasoning was sound enough: if a single Wraith ship turned up unexpected, the Daedalus was close enough to fight it, but if more turned up then they would need to run. Once the interstellar hyperdrive was back online he would turn his attention to weapons.

Hours later Rodney fell into bed in a small cabin on-board the _Laurea_ that the Traveler captain had assigned to him and John. Caldwell hadn't been too pleased, wanting them to return to the _Daedalus_ but John thought it showed a lack of trust in the Travelers, and a lack of faith in Rodney's workmanship. Although he wasn't much of a people person, even Rodney couldn't help but notice the thawing of the cold expressions on the faces of the Travelers working with them on the repairs.

"It wasn't your fault, Rodney. You weren't given much of a choice even if you had known what the Attero Device would do."

"I know but-."

"No buts, Rodney. It wasn't your fault."

"You almost died."

"Still not your fault."

They stripped down to boxers and t-shirts for comfort in the cramped quarters, occasionally bumping elbows as they settled into the bed. It was too small to leave much of a gap between them even if that had been their wish but they had long since given up any pretense about the nature of the feelings lying between them. John rolled onto his side and half draped himself over Rodney's back and Rodney sighed contentedly as he dropped into sleep, too exhausted to start anything but comforted by John's welcome weight and closeness.

His dreams were warm and fuzzy with the hum of Ancient technology pressing against the back of his mind as it did on Atlantis. He was cocooned in John's embrace - safe and warm. When the equivalent of morning came, he awoke to the press of kisses against his skin and the slow drawing down of his boxers as John carefully stripped him. He gasped sharply as John pushed inside him after minimal preparation but it was a good hurt, with pleasure quickly consuming any lingering pain as John thrust into him in quick but smooth snaps of his hips. Pushing up more to his knees, Rodney moaned in pleasure as John's hand wrapped around his own hard cock.

As they came, moments apart, the hum of the _Laurea_ swelling within his mind felt like victory, leaving him floating on waves of triumphant pleasure. 

They slowly came down from the euphoria of the moment, and John dragged him into a deep yet sloppy kiss.

"Hi," John murmured when they finally parted, a lopsided smile gracing his handsome face; he curled up against Rodney's side, one hand smoothing Rodney's perspiring skin beneath the thin cotton of his t-shirt.

Rodney knew his own smile was likely just as goofy.

Beyond their cabin, Rodney could sense movement as a new day shift started on-board the _Laurea_. He still had plenty of work to do before he could leave the remaining repairs in the hands of the travelers alone. Although the Travelers could repair the structure of the ship and rebuild its engines, only someone with both the ATA gene and the right knowledge could interface with the on-board computer. 

He grinned when he realized that meant he and John could look forward to many more nights like this last one before heading back to Atlantis on the _Daedalus_.

END  
.


End file.
